III. 16]
[← ] ἑαυτοὺς ψαλμοῖς ὕμνοις ᾠδαῖς πνευματικαῖς ἐν τῇ [ →]
ψαλμοῖς κ.τ.λ.] to be connected with the preceding sentence, as suggested by Ephes. v. 18 sq. ἀλλὰ πληροῦσθε ἐν πνεύματι, λαλοῦντες ἑαυτοῖς [ἐν] ψαλμοῖς καὶ ὑμνοῖς καὶ ᾠδαῖς [πνευματικαῖς], ᾄδοντες καὶ ψάλλοντες τῇ καρδίᾳ ὑμῶν τῷ Κυρίῳ. The datives describe the instruments of the διδαχή and νουθεσία.
The three words ψαλμός, ὕμνος, ᾠδή, are distinguished, so far as they are distinguishable, in Trench N.T. Syn. § lxxviii. p. 279 sq. They are correctly defined by Gregory Nyssen in Psalm. c. iii (I. p. 295) ψαλμὸς μέν ἐστιν ἡ διὰ τοῦ ὀργάνου τοῦ μουσικοῦ μελωδία, ᾠδὴ δὲ ἡ διὰ στόματος γενομένη τοῦ μέλους μετὰ ῥημάτων ἐπιφώνησις ... ὕμνος δὲ ἡ ἐπὶ τοῖς ὑπάρχουσιν ἡμῖν ἀγαθοῖς ἀνατιθεμένη τῷ Θεῷ εὐφημία; see also Hippol. p. 191 sq. (ed. de Lagarde). In other words, while the leading idea of ψαλμός is a musical accompaniment and that of ὕμνος praise to God, ᾠδή is the general word for a song, whether accompanied or unaccompanied, whether of praise or on any other subject. Thus it was quite possible for the same song to be at once ψαλμός, ὕμνος, and ᾠδή. In the text the reference in ψαλμοῖς, we may suppose, is specially, though not exclusively (1 Cor. xiv. 26), to the Psalms of David, which would early form part of the religious worship of the Christian brotherhood. On the other hand ὕμνοις would more appropriately designate those hymns of praise which were composed by the Christians themselves on distinctly Christian themes, being either set forms of words or spontaneous effusions of the moment. The third word ᾠδαῖς gathers up the other two, and extends the precept to all forms of song, with the limitation however that they must be πνευματικαί. St Chrysostom treats ὕμνοι here as an advance upon ψαλμοί, which in one aspect they are; οἱ ψαλμοί, he says, πάντα ἔχουσιν, ὁι δὲ ὕμνοι πάλιν οὐδὲν ἀνθρώπινον· ὅταν ἐν τοῖς ψαλμοῖς μάθῃ, τότε καὶ ὕμνους εἴσεται, ἅτε θείοτερον πρᾶγμα.
Psalmody and hymnody were highly developed in the religious services of the Jews at this time: see Philo in Flacc. 14 (II. p. 535) πάννυχοι δὲ διατελέσαντες ἐν ὕμνοις καὶ ᾠδαῖς, de Vit. Cont. § 3 (II. p. 476) ποιοῦσιν ᾄσματα καὶ ὕμνους εἰς Θεὸν διὰ παντοίων μέτρων καὶ μελῶν, ἃ ῥυθμοῖς σεμνοτέροις ἀναγκαίως χαράττουσι, § 10 (p. 484) ὁ ἀναστὰς ὕμνον ᾄδει πεποιημένον εἰς τὸν Θεόν, ἢ καινὸν αὐτὸς πεποιηκὼς ἢ ἀρχαῖόν τινα τῶν πάλαι ποιητῶν· μέτρα γὰρ καὶ μέλη καταλελοίπασι πολλὰ ἐπῶν τριμέτρων, προσοδίων, ὕμνων, παρασπονδείων, παραβωμίων, στασίμων, χορικῶν, στροφαῖς πολυστρόφοις εὖ διαμεμετρημένων κ.τ.λ., § 11 (p. 485) ᾄδουσι πεποιημένους εἰς τὸν Θεὸν ὕμνους πολλοῖς μέτροις καὶ μέλεσι κ.τ.λ., with the whole context. They would thus find their way into the Christian Church from the very beginning. For instances of singing hymns or psalms in the Apostolic age see Acts iv. 24, xvi. 25, 1 Cor. xiv. 15, 26. Hence even in St Paul’s epistles, more especially his later epistles, fragments of such hymns appear to be quoted; e.g. Ephes. v. 14 (see the note there). For the use of hymnody in the early Church of the succeeding generations see Plin. Epist. x. 97 ‘Ante lucem convenire, carmenque Christo quasi Deo dicere secum invicem,’ Anon. [Hippolytus] in Euseb. H.E. v. 28 ψαλμοὶ δὲ ὅσοι καὶ ᾠδὰι ἀδελφῶν ἀπ’ )αρχῆς ὑπὸ πιστῶν γραφεῖσαι τὸν Λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ τὸν Χριστὸν ὑμνοῦσι θεολογοῦντες. The reference in the text is not solely or chiefly to public worship as such. Clem. Alex. Pæd. ii. 4 (p. 194) treats it as applying to social gatherings; and again Tertullian says of the agape, Apol. 39 ‘Ut quisque de scripturis sanctis vel de proprio ingenio potest, provocatur in medium Deo canere,’ and of the society of husband and wife, Ad Uxor. ii. 8 ‘Sonant inter duos psalmi et hymni, et mutuo provocant quis melius Domino suo cantet.’ On the psalmody etc. of the early Christians see Bingham Antiq. xiv. c. 1, and especially Probst Lehre und Gebet p. 256 sq.
ἐν τῇ χάριτι] ‘in God’s grace’; comp. 2 Cor. i. 12 οὐκ ἐν σοφία σαρκικῇ ἀλλ’ ἐν χάριτι Θεοῦ. These words are perhaps best connected with the preceding clause, as by Chrysostom. Thus the parallelism with ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ is preserved. The correct reading is ἐν τῇ χάριτι, not ἐν χάριτι. For ἡ χάρις, ‘divine grace’, see Phil. i. 7 συγκοινωνούς μου τῆς χάριτος with the note. The definite article seems to exclude all lower senses of χάρις here, such as ‘acceptableness’, ‘sweetness’ (see iv. 6). The interpretation ‘with gratitude’, if otherwise tenable (comp. 1 Cor. x. 30), seems inappropriate here, because the idea of thanksgiving is introduced in the following verse.
III. 17, 18]
[← ] χάριτι, ᾄδοντες ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν τῷ Θεῷ· 17καὶ πᾶν ὅ τι ἐὰν ποιῆτε ἐν λόγῳ ἢ ἐν ἔργῳ, πάντα ἐν ὀνόματι Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ, εὐχαριστοῦντες τῷ Θεῷ πατρὶ δι’ αὐτοῦ.